‘I am NOT blind,’ Pastor Warren tweets after pruning accident

Politics Daily’s David Gibson reports, “Mega-pastor Rick Warren has sent out a Tweet revealing that he was blinded in a yard accident at his California home that has left him temporarily without sight and in ‘excruciating pain.'”

Warren was pruning a firestick plant in his yard on Monday when got some sap on his hands, wiped his brow and “immediately experienced excruciating pain in both eyes,” according to his publicist A. Larry Ross. His wife, Kay, called 911 and an emergency squad rushed him to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif., where he stayed overnight before his release on Tuesday.

Ross said Warren is wearing protective contact lenses and is using ointment, but is unable to open his eyes. Doctors expect he will recover, the spokesman told Christianity Today.

Warren tweeted, “Thank you for your prayers for my eyes. Another doctor visit this PM. May God use this pain for his glory. Rom. 8:28″

However, Warren later tweeted, “A doctor put protective contacts on my corneas as bandages during the healing. I am NOT blind. Thank you.”

Last December, Sahil Kapur reported for Raw Story, “Evangelical pastor Rick Warren’s ‘urgent’ plea for donations to sustain his megachurch has been met with amusement and mockery from gay rights advocates.”

Warren posted a letter online Wednesday saying his Saddleback Church is “$900,000 in the red for the year” and pleaded with congregants to help fill the gap “in the next 48 hours,” the Associated Press reported.

Warren said the recession hurt funding all year, but tallied up his eleventh hour effort to the Church’s lower-than-expected donations on Christmas. “This last weekend the bottom dropped out,” he said in the letter.

The gay community, which has long been at odds with Warren’s opposition to same-sex marriage, doesn’t appear sad about the news.

A headline at the popular gay website Queerty read, “Rick Warren’s Budget for Hypocrisy Is $900,000 Short This Year.”